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It's not even blogging day (but I was gone Monday at the NAIBA meeting), so here are a few quick make-up links.

According to Shelf Awareness, "Bookstore sales last December were $2.113 billion, up 2.7% from $2.057 billion in December 2006, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The year ended on a good note, with sales at $16.768 billion, up 1.1% from $16.589 billion in 2006. During the first half of the year, sales were below the previous year's levels, but stronger results in the second half of 2007 helped pull bookstore sales into the black for the full year." Hooray!

And yours truly is beginning a series over at the Bookshop Blog, telling the story of this crazy dream of opening an indie bookstore. There's lots more going on at BB, so if you get bored with the story of my life there's plenty of links, advice, and personality to keep you there.

I'm off to a morning meeting, then I gotta do some grocery shopping for V-Day dinner with the ALP. If you're in the city and looking for something to do tonight, making books is a nice (free!) option. Insider tip: collage is one of our book decorating options, and I've repurposed a bunch of beautiful publisher catalogs to be snipped up for the purpose. Should be fun. Enjoy the day, however you spend it, and happy reading!

So my friend Kelly over at Big A, little a mistakenly invited her entire email address book list to join her at Good Reads. She corrected the mistake by, um, telling us, but I was all like, “Why not join?” and I did. Problem is that I don’t really know what to do there other than add friends. And frankly, I’m not even that good at adding friends because I don’t recognize a lot of the names without the blog names listed. Point being if you’d like to be my friend on Good Reads, you’re probably going to have to ask me, as I can’t guarantee I knew who you were by “Susan, from New Jersey.” Anyway, now that I’m on Good Reads, what do I do? How do I add books? More basically, why do I want to? What’s in it for ME?

JacketFlap I’m enjoying very much. Too much, in fact, as I tend to see the blogs that are on JacketFlap and don’t always get back out to see my blogfriends that aren’t there. I’m also a bit concerned about reading blogs this way after the fall, when everyone starts posting all regular-like. Am I going to get too swamped with entries? Anyway, if you haven’t done so, than check out JacketFlap with its one-stop shoppping for authors, illustrators, publishers, editors, reviewers, and more. Signing in (finally) and using its blog-reader (finally) is really the only summer goal I’ve accomplished so far. (Crap.)

Lots of folks are at SCBWI this weekend, including some friends who are presenting on blogging. Go Kid Lit Bloggers!

After the basket search, the egg hunt, and the Easter egg dyeing, I had the girls paint wooden rabbits. I had them put old T-shirts over their dresses. I covered the table with newspaper. I set up the paint and bunnies in the middle of the table. Yet with all these preparations, not one, but both of my school-aged children managed to drop paint-laden brushes on the carpet. Unbelievable.

And a pretty good analogy for my past week.

I had made all the preparations for Spring Break with my kids. I was going to catch up on some reviews and read some newish blogs I’ve been meaning to explore. I was going to call some friends I don’t always get to see. I was going to clean up the house that I’ve been neglecting. So what did I do with my week? No, really. I’m asking. What did I do with my week? Because I can’t figure it out. As it turns out I managed to drop both my blogging and my housework. Unbelievable.

I thought that if I didn’t spend so much time online I could get more work done at home. Instead, I was so sluggish it took me five times as long to accomplish any one chore. I think that I get more energy from reading, writing, and being engaged to actually tackle the stuff in my life. Staying home from work and staying offline for the most part, I was craving interaction. I let in a door-to-door salesman, for Pete’s sake. But that’s another story.

Anyway, I’m back in business, such as it is. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions for nonfiction, middle-school books for boys. I’ve got a lot to work with now, and I’m very pleased. Tomorrow starts my usual hectic schedule of work, Girl Scouts, homework, parenting, party-planning, and yes, blogging. And I guess I wouldn’t want it any other way.